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My name is Keith Michaud and this is “Letters From Away,” a blog written by a Mainer living outside the comfortable and sane confines of New England. The blog is intended for Mainers, whether they live in the Pine Tree State or beyond, and for anyone who has loved ’em, been baffled by ’em or both. Ayuh, I am “from away.” Worse still, I live on the Left Coast – in California. Enjoy! Or not. Your choice.
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- How Maine Became a Laboratory for the Future of Public Higher Ed | The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Angus King Urges Interior Department To Reconsider Offshore Drilling Proposal | Mainepublic.org
- Maine Voices: Higher education, employers must work together for bright future | Portland Press Herald
- Stunning reversal: McDaniels turns down Colts’ job to stay with Patriots | The Associated Press via the Portland Press Herald
- Kennebec River water levels could stay high into next week | Bangor Daily News
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Daily Archives: February 21, 2010
Presque Isle, Houlton benefit from energy conversion grant – Bangor Daily News
Posted in Economy, Energy, Environment, Maine, Politics and government
Tagged American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, Aroostook County, conservation, Energy, federal grant, Gov. John Baldacci, Houlton, Maine Department of Conservation, Maine Economic Improvement Fund, Maine Forest Service, oil boiler, pellet boiler, Presque Isle, University of Maine, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, wood chip boiler
Hundreds ‘take it outside’ at Aroostook State Park – Bangor Daily News
Posted in Environment, Maine, News and Newspapers
Tagged Aroostook State Park, Can-Am Crown International Sled Dog Races, dog sledding, Echo Lake, Fort Kent, Freeport, Maine Department of Conservation and the Maine Recreation and Park Association, Presque Isle, skating, skiing, sliding, snow, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, Take It Outside Winter Family Fun Day, winter, winter activities, winter sports, Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park
Finalists for top job to visit Fort Kent campus | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram
Finalists for top job to visit Fort Kent campus | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.
Posted in Maine
Cannery closure end of the line for a way of life | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram
Posted in Economy, Energy, Environment, Maine, Outdoors
Tagged Birch Harbor, Bumble Bee Foods, cannery, closure, Corea, Department of Labor and Department of Economic and Community Development, Ellsworth, fishing, Gouldsboro, herring, joblessness, jobs, lobster, lobsterman, National Marine Fisheries Service, packer, Prospect Harbor, sardine plant, sardines, Schoodic Peninsula, unemployment, Winter Harbor
Where ‘one job means so much’ | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram
Posted in Economy, Energy, Environment, Maine
Tagged Baileyville, Calais, Domtar pulp mill, Eastport, Eastport Port Authority, emerging industry, fishermen, job creation, job retention, jobs, Ocean Renewable Power Co., Portland, sardine industry, tidal energy, tradespeople, unemployment, Washington County
Letters From Away moves to a new home, while keeping the old
Letters From Away, my blog about what happens in Maine and to Mainers, has a new home. But I’m not nearly ready to get rid of the old home. I like it too much.
I plan to keep Letters From Away on WordPress.com, but now I’m going to have a (nearly) identical version on Blogger, too. It’s called the same thing – Letters From Away – but has a slightly different URL. It is http://lettersfromaway.blogspot.com/. There is a link on the WordPress.com version to the Blogger version and a link from the Blogger version to the WordPress.com version.
Why?
Well, I started the original version – the WordPress.com version – because I wanted to keep writing during my unemployment, reach out with information about my (limited) online portfolio and my LinkedIn profile, and keep idle hands from being so idle.
Frankly, it has been a bit more time-consuming than I first expected and I’m not getting the number of visits I would like, but I do realize blogging is a bit new for me and that it takes time to generate a following. And I rarely have a chance to promote Letters From Away – or another blog I write, Coffeehouse Observer – and when I do promote it, it usually is to my Facebook friends. But I’m hoping things will pick up.
And I think this is something that I can keep up once I have a new job.
And it should be something I can do should I return to Maine. The “from away” part in the title of the blogs refers to a Mainer phrase to mean anything or any person that is from outside of Maine. It is a phrase usually spoken by a Mainer with a bit disgust. Well, quite a bit of disgust.
So, if I do return to Maine, I can simply change the name of the blogs to Back From Away and just keep on going. Or I can create new blogs and link back to the older blogs to give readers context.
To make a short answer longer, the “why” in adding the Blogger version is to spread out a bit more, to give my writing, portfolio and hunger to get back to work a wider audience.
I hope you visit either version of Letters From Away. They are on slightly different templates and the Blogger version has a news feed feature for news from Maine and the rest of New England. For that reason, I may limit the links to news stories from Maine newspapers on the Blogger version. I’ll figure out all that later.
Well, enjoy! Or not. It’s your choice.
And as always, please feel free to contact me via the blogs or email me at keith.l.michaud@gmail.com to report bad links, copyediting errors or whatever. Thanks!